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Jonathan J. Halperin
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Standing Firm for Freedom of the Press (A letter to Ann Telnaes)
I admire...
..you for standing firm for freedom of the press, despite being perched on the slippery slope of American descent into fascism and autocracy. Satire has always been and must remain a precious element of democracy and free speech. I saw this in the Soviet Union during the years when there was a short-lived flourishing of freedom. Please see the photo below from my collection of matryoshkas.
While it was once seen as sacrilege to depict Soviet leaders other than with the utmost respect, that changed under Gorbachev when artists started showing leaders as nesting dolls. But note, in the beginning the satire embraced Gorbachev, Brezhnev, Khrushchev – and eventually Stalin. But even after Stalin became an acceptable target of satire, Lenin remained off limits for a while.
It was only later that you could pop open Stalin and find a little Lenin inside.
If either the story or the photo are useful to you in any way, please feel free to share/use.
Again, thank you for taking a stand. It matters.
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When I began to unhook from SustainAbility in 2008, after 20+ years, to co-found Volans, Jonathan was working with the US end of SustainAbility — and sent the London end of the Volans team a large cardboard box of multi-colored felt rocks, which initially I couldn't make head nor tail of. I thought he was mad, or overly American.
But I have to say that, over time, those felt rocks have become a central feature of the Volans culture, thrown by team members at other team members (or guests) on the slightest provocation. That aside, he's a consummate professional, creative collaborator, skilled communicator, and keen intellect—and I am delighted both to have had Jonathan as a colleague and to now count him as a friend.
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